THE STORY OF TEMPLE DRAKE
NIGHT NURSE
Two film reviews by Jeff Meyer
Copyright 1988 Jeff Meyer
The following two films were shown in William K. Everson's "Hollywood and the Code" series at the Seattle International Film Festival.
THE STORY OF TEMPLE DRAKE (USA, 1933) Director: Stephen Roberts Cast: Miriam Hopkins, Jack LaRue, William Gargan
NIGHT NURSE (USA, 1931) Director: William Wellman Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Clark Gable, Joan Blondell, Ben Lyon, Charlotte Merriam, Charles Winninger
THE STORY OF TEMPLE DRAKE was used by Everson to illustrate the problems of adapting a work that dealt with material considered too risque for the times. While previous films examined in this series had added elements of sex and violence to attract audiences, TEMPLE DRAKE is a film which contains these elements but doesn't attempting to pander to the public. For years, several people at Paramount had wanted to film William Faulkner's short story "Sanctuary"; however, it was always considered an impossibility, as the subject matter (a young southern girl who is raped and then abducted by a hood) was considered way too touchy for that period. Finally, after much cajoling, Paramount was able to get it made. It has the texture of a Warner's crime drama in many several senses; and much is hinted at, rather than explicitly shown -- the actual rape scene is basically communicated by a candle approaching Drake's bed and a scream. It also has more of a social conscious than most films of the times; the hero of the film (a public defender in a small Southern town) is defending blacks before the imperious Judge Drake, Temple's grandfather. The Judge's continuing ideas of "Southern classes" are seen as generally corroding his daughter and his community towards the end.
Ironically, the film raised little controversy, because the publicity was fairly non-exploitive in theme. However, it was one of the last films of its type to make it through the Hollywood studio system until the loosening of the code in 1938.
NIGHT NURSE was one of the other films that Everson had listed as being most instrumental in the institution of the code (with a title like NIGHT NURSE, you might guess that this isn't exactly MY BRILLIANT CAREER). Barbara Stanwyck becomes a nurse trainee in a local hospital, where the doctors and nurses all seem pretty cynical (these people make St. Elsewhere look like a paradise). She teams up with another trainee, Blondell, who wants to use her position as a nurse to find some rich old patient to marry. She also befriends one of the nicest bootleggers I've ever seen in the movies, a chap who looks like he sells magazines to get through State U., except that he meets Stanwyck to have a bullet removed from his arm. Guy just radiates boy-next-door charm, and we can tell that these two are made for each other.
After nurse graduation (or whatever the hell they call it), the two women take a job nursing a pair of children who, as it turns out, are being starved to death. Their mother, a rich alcoholic, is being seduced by her evil chauffeur (played by Clark Gable, dressed like Kato); he plans to scrag the kids and marry their mother, so that he can get all the money; also, he probably knows that the lovable tykes will laugh at how his ears stick out. Gable has arranged for the kids' doctor to be a drug-addicted surgeon (we know this because he twitches like a fiend), who confines the little girls to their room without food. The children look remarkably healthy, by the way, except that they swoon every five minutes from hunger. Stanwyck, of course, won't stand for it, and after haggling with a decent doctor at the hospital to skip ethics (rather like Jack Klugman as Quincy, but with better legs), she gets him to come in and save the girl. Gable tries to put a stop to it, but Stanwyck's boyish mobster gets the drop on him and makes fun of his ears. The girls are fine, the quack doctor brought up on charges, and Gable apparently goes for "a ride." The last scene is Stanwyck and boyfriend driving off into the sunset ("So, honey, who would you like me to rub out next?")
It was something of an exploitation film -- "extremely tawdry," in Everson's best British accent; the really isn't a *really* sympathetic character outside of Stanwyck, though by today's standards the bootlegger would be a saint, compared to Chuck Norris or Dirty Harry. Blondell and Stanwyck spend an inordinate amount of time in their lingerie. Gable punches Stanwyck (I mean *punches*... bloody nose and everything. I expected to see her lay him out, as she is definitely the toughest character in the cast...). All in all, this would almost be worth watching for unintentional laughs, and Stanwyck (of course) holds your attention.
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
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